King and Queen Museum Opens Exhibit on May 12 featuring Colonial King and Queen Sundial. (May 2012)

The King and Queen Courthouse Tavern Museum opens its exhibit on the colonial “Uper Church of St. Stephens Parish” featuring the sundial given to the upper church of St. Stephens Parish, King and Queen County in 1715 by Col. James Taylor of King and Queen. Col Taylor was the son of James Taylor 1 who came to King and Queen from England by 1675 and is the great-grandfather of two Presidents, Zachary Taylor and James Madison.

The sundial is on loan to the King and Queen Historical Society for a ten-year period by Immanuel Church located at King and Queen Court House. In exchange, the Museum raised funds for the restoration of the sundial and the development of the exhibit. The exhibit has been designed by Terry Ammons of Studio Ammons of Petersburg and built by GROPEN, museum fabricators of Charlottesville. There will be a dedication ceremony of the Exhibit at 10:30 am on Saturday, May 12th. The Rev. Richard Scott Krejci of Immanuel Church will participate.

The St. Stephens Parish, in the middle part of King and Queen County, was formed before 1674 as part of the Church of England or Anglican Church. The upper church, also known as Apple Tree Church, was located on Rosemont Road and burned in the early 1800s.

The exhibit also includes the base of the baptismal font required to be in every Anglican Church. The baptismal font base was given the to the Museum some years ago by St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Essex County.